One Rabid Fox changes the Succession Wars [A Battletech Isekai]

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara
Justin's groan was loud as he got up from the couch... not that he'd been laying there all that long. "Oh its great to be back." The common space of the academy was largely filled with other students but the trio's return was different for all three. Justin, and Alexandria had done well... they had done well before he had left, but Albion and Northwind had proven to be strong competitors. Robinson's pair of cadets had eked victories against Warrior's hall, which had cemented the New Syrtis favorite in last place but Robinson hadn't done well against the assault mech and Alexandria in her orion had put the duke of rio's son out of action in both their original matches and the follow on sets.

Justin had done well against the Highlander in the second set but had still taken a beating that in a real battle would have probably have left both mechs in need of serious repairs. Justin's loss in the bout meant nothing really... really he had done well and it had no bearing on production decisions for the Cataphract. It was all about logistics.

That had always shaped the cataphract decisions. The choice of the Imperator A auto cannons used on the Rifleman. The same for the large laser... but if the trooper project Rifleman went forward well there was going to be less impetus to produce the Imperator A or more examples produced but that problem could be looked at from different angles.

"You only have a few more months," Henry pointed out tapping his noteputer, and double checking the delivery receipts. He didn't look up as Justin groaned while he stretched, or the half incoherent ;I know' that ushered from the shorter senior. The Stingray, the F 90, had a reputation as an ASF for hitting dropships parked on the ground. It was in that he planned to rely on... not so much because he didn't think they were capable of engaging DropShips in the air, but because he wanted a competent air to ground attack platform to support his masses of medium of tanks, and hovercraft...and battlemechs.

That it ran off a 240 Vox engine was great for logistics as well. It was plenty of reason to transfer more to Bristol. Subsidiaries focused on manufacturing armor had been a consideration anyway, before the lawsuit... and as much as that surprise pissed him off he couldn't just blow it off. Even while he was here for the semester he was going to have to keep on top of it.

The obvious solution was going to be to make changes to the Devastator and the Schrek to differentiate the models. Use the Vox240 pull the TTS and Comms gear for Federated Suns, and hope that was fucking enough at least for the short term. They could use starslab pattern armor like the Partisan he supposed as well.... but it was just the headache of having to make those changes ... and the concern that it might not be enough.

If that wasn't enough for the Schrek then that was a problem. Theycould make improvements to the Devastator as a tank. Henry reached up t o pinch the bridge of his nose hoping against hope it would stemthe mounting headache. Commonality of parts. Same engine, same armor... ideally same everything except the guns.

It could have been worse.

Alexandria looked over her tea cup. "What are you going to do?"

Sakhara had an armor school. "The Devastator carries a fusion engine," He muttered closing his eyes and working backwards, "It needs more armor protection." Henry made a mental note to himself to email the vice chancellor ... the legal side of things was his problem, but he hadn't been looking to customize the Devastator tank at the time this had all started... now there was a reason to so more armor made sense, and that would protect the crew and it would be less risk of the fusion... which he could replace especially within jump distance of Sakhara. He almost considered the matter of caseless ammunition... but there wasn't a supply chain for that anywhere but here... no that would definitely have to wait. "Medium lasers," He muttered." Missiles and support would need tobe relegated to other units... let the schreks serve as direct fire support at range that had proved to work, and go from there. "We've got a lot to do now that we're back." The whole tank thing was a pain in the ass but he'd figure it out... and a small petty part of him wanted to rush through the meklab essence digging around for anything that Aldis industries would build in the future and patent introtech versions of all of it just for the hassle.

He could still do that... but doing it right now would just raise a shit ton of questions he didn't have time to answer, or argue about. They had a lot that needed to be answered... and talking to the other corporations... and there was always the possibility that yeah maybe Davion leadership was right and this was nebulous convoluted Capellan scheme to just lawfare a problem for the Federated Suns... and then there was the chance it was Terra... that it was ComStar.

"What are we going to do?" Justin asked, "More unit drills?"

"Among other things," All of them, the graduating class wouldn't have made it this far without being competent mech pilots, that asn't going to be a problem. All of them could drive and shoot, and in theory they should have all been able to work together pairedup as lances... but could they work together as larger groups in tasks not immediately related to driving their mechs. "There are staff material that still needs to be covered, and coordination with the other arms," He glanced at the AFS transfer orders, "We're going to coordinate your class with armor and air power," It wouldn't be for another few weeks ,but that lesson was going to be important since the idea was to insure that the graduating cadets even the ones not going to the cadre were well versed, well prepared for frontline service. "I'm going to drill it into your heads, that having combat vehicles helping on the field is a major benefit, so you can expect that." Watching battle roms for the last ride of the sword of light just hadn't cut it for most of hte young mechwarriors... the battle in January of 3014 simply was a grand victory over the hated national enemy.... but it had not cleared old biases or views of how warfare was conducted or the chauvinism, parochialism of combat. "Besides ... well in addition to that the opposing force training is going to be expanded. Bard should be back here in a couple of months... March I think, so you can expect the rangers as well. Be ready for that." He advised.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara

Alexandria had returned to Sakhara with some idea of what she was going to be walking into. Or at least she had thought she had known that. The truth was most of the cadets at Sakhara came from impressive enough families, that most of their focus had been the recent victories over the Combine the position of Count of Sakhara was recognition for that but it certainly didn't help that Henry's position as Count directly subordinate to the First Prince was not something he traded on. He didn't need.

Whether he traded on it or not, was largely irrelevant it wasn't something that could be forgotten but it could be overshadowed by older more established titles, or glossed over by the accomplishments which had warranted it. That didn't fix the situation, especially now, especially now. Concealing the shipyards would have been impossible. Armor production could have been overlooked, even fusion powered tanks, but not asf or battlemechs... and the construction gantries of a star lord jumpship even more so.

She had been expected to keep such information in confidence until the announcement on New Avalon, but really there had been others, andword had almost surely gotten out. Now that the announcement had beenmade by the First Prince though there was no pretending.

The two men were talking. "I was under the impression that the225 Engine was not to be considered a priority." The heavy set technician or engineer, she wasn't quite sure which wore a heavy dutyred work jump suit.

"It wasn't." Clay replied in an almost sullen clip. "It wasn't, we're going to talk to Achernar in the spring about transferring a VOX 225 Engine production line to them on New Avalon, along with talks about getting them to introduce the Hammer hands back into production. Hopefully that will spur a little more innovation, but we need additional 225 engines, and I don't feel like risking a legal fight over the Von Luckner."


The conversation's technical scope was beyond her. The talk of thehammer hands was an archaic battlemech an early machine developedindigenously inthe Federated Suns, and of course she knew Clay hadbeen talking with Achernar and about installations on New Avalon. Sheunderstood that the fusion powered tanks were in production here aswell.

--

The gantry system were automated. He could sit here and watch anddrink coffee and needed to do nothing about the machines. The people here were just in case something did somehow fail... but it was all black box factory tech you didn't need people for this work.

Henry had been planning to do something with Project Zhukov formonths now. Already had shown the cadets the heavy hovercraft assault guns which would expand the Robinson Assault Cluster... but wooing Archernar was only nominally related to that. New Avalon Fusion Products could use additional investment, handing them machine tooling was only part of that. The Hammer hands would be a Davion talking point... but it would also allow for other projects.

Most of Archernar's incomes came from its other divisions not its battlemech production. In a sense that was good thing on a number of different fronts. They had a large manufacturing concern, diversified across multiple industries and they were established so people knewthe name, and expanded production was less likely to raise concerns.

They in that respect made a good choice because they were also on New Avalon. Zhukov was going to be more than that, he was going to write to Robinson... and they were going to push forward with new tanks, and new weapons especially if he had to move away from the Devastator. He was going to need to have someone sub contract to produce internal combustion vehicles as well even if he was more likely to rely on Fusion engines personally there were going to be worlds that needed to have ICE vehicles... where as other militias could afford to operate Nissan 200 powered tanks or heavier vehicles. For wealthier worlds though those were options, worlds like Sakhara were places where his Shrek's and devastators attracted little attention from the cadets who came from similar worlds.

Maybe that had given him an insulated view... but getting blindsided by the Aldis litigation was infuriating. It was something he was going to have to deal with, and the first step in that direction was going to be moving away from the Mk III standard configuration. That was... in hind isght still something that they could have done better on. Hindsight was always 20/20, something that he was reminding himself about.

It was part of the reason he was making the point of just selling a factory for the 225 Engine to Achernar since they weren't really in a place to refuse the offer. Especially if they then went on to start production, or restart production, of the Hammer hands.

... in the mean time, "I want that package put together to ship to New Avalon," The Donals and ChisComp medium lasers would bean easily justified decision... the Donals as a replacement to theAC-10s of the Hammer Hands of yore well he could pass that along and not expect a second look. That the machine was 5 tons heavier and used a different engine, well he'd had that discussion already with his own people. New Avalon Fusion Products would probably be glad for the new machinery and their BattleMech people would have the opportunity to build a slower brawler machine that would be directly competing with the long sword. Production which could go somewhere besides the Draconis March... Achernar could sell into the Crucis, or even to the periphery facing units without a problem... but the real objective was just to expand mech production for the Suns over all," In the mean time the MML Centurion is our next project." That was actually one of the small reliefs of the trip.

There hadn't been that many questions about the machine... too overshadowed by heavier fighting machines. Which was fine, the dealto produce the Centurion had been his priority because it was a simple trooper mech... and something that he could provide to cadets en masse. All powered by a simple and common 200 Rating Nissan Engine.

The majority of that company worth of Centurions were all normal 'intro-tech' models. There were twelve cadets in the 'year under him' that had started the new term with orders to report to the mech hangar in the morning. Coincidentally Justin had a free period for independent study this final semester at the academy and the goal was to give him time to coordinate with the massed centurions... even though that was optimistic about his slated duty station on Spica.

He hadn't even needed to talk to the Vice Chancellor personally ...in part because the centurion discussion had already been had when he had started talking about the Centurion line in the first place. The problem though was Sakhara's cadets didn't have an engineering techside program... and he didn't expect any of the cadets to go and pull a Kerensky and say I need xyz in a mech to turn out hte next atlas orthe king crab... and that wasn't what he really needed, wasn't what the Fed Suns really needed.

NAIS was open, bit it was just one school.

Henry sighed, "Also is there any word about the Eridani showing up?"

"According to the office of the First Prince while General Kerston plans to employ the JumpShip circuit it won't be for a few more weeks."

Henry nodded, "What do you think?"

"The First Prince is wooing the Eridani to attack the combine using the data provided."


Henry rolled his eyes, "Yes, obviously, but I was asking Colonel what you think, as a person."

The 3rd​ RCT officer paused, "I don't know sir."

"You've got a couple weeks to figure where you stand with the Eridani, man... and we still have to tell them about there being an Amaris claimant out there as well, assuming Ian hasn't beaten us to the punch on that front." The man's face was grim in response to that comment, but Henry continued on, taking a quick swig from his coffee, "Anyway you said the Eridani's IFF credentials were valid, what does that mean?"

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara

Even from the safety of the vantage they had the 185mm auto cannon roared, still loud despite the protective covering of the command bunker allowing the gaggle of students to watch their fellow cadets train on the demonstration tank.

Just because Aldis was filing litigation it couldn't do anything to stop him from using the tanks he already had. He just couldn't sell them. Or at least it was legally advised he not sell any more while the proceedings were filed for the courts.

The Demolishers primary weapon had been what had pushed him towards settling on the ChemJet auto cannon over other options... there was always he supposed the principle armament of the Victor he supposed, but that ran into rumors of issues with the Pontiac's ammunition feed. He was leery of that sort of thing... for much the same reason he supported replacing the auto cannons on trooper mechs like the Centurion, the Enforcer. He would have recommended doing the same with replacing the Imperator A on the multitude of Dragons in the Draconis March Militia.. but that machine also needed its ten cell long range missile launcher ripped out as well... which was another familiar problem. It was just being boring and practical

The Dragon and any modifications or refit packs for that were going to remain that for a while. At least few more years. He couldn't, didn't have the time to diversify into VLAR300 machines just yet so it was just going to have to wait until this mess with Aldis was settled out... and that was also why he was diversifying by proxy. He had needed to do something for Achernar, because really the Federated Suns and the AFFS were always looking for more production.

The 75 ton Zhukov tank was only slightly smaller than the Demolisher. It was built around a smaller 225 Fusion Engine. It addressed the Mark III Demolisher's initial defect of limited armor, but the entire Zhukov branding was going to be marketing going forward. Steadily going to be getting louder over the next several years if things went to plan.

The RAC would be receiving further battlemechs of course, but that expansion was going to have to be balanced against other needs.

"This is really eating at you." Justin observed.

Most of the school... or at least the ones who cared to talk about it were on the party line about blaming the Capellans... but the truth was given the victories against the Combine, and the lack of victories against the Capellans, and the capellans being the sick man of the Inner Sphere they were also taking the main branch Davion cues about that there being fault in how House Hasek was running things.

... that was just as likely that scions of powerful people who attended Sakhara were seeing the way the wind was blowing on New Avalon. That was actually to Justin's benefit. He'd be joining an RCT on Spica operating under auspices from New Avalon, not New Syrtis.

Not that these would be ready for Spica. This was a demonstration model of the tank chassis. The entire point of the fusion engine was to mount more armor. He hoped the senior cadets inside the tank appreciated that, "When you leave for Spica I'll be sending an air regiment with you, it won't be at full strength, but if the Capellans do try anything I want you to be able to force them to surrender rather than be able to run away."

"You think that's going to happen?"

"If it does, then it would be significant feather in your cap." Alexandria observed cooly to her cousin, "But can you really afford to spare those planes?"

"In this case its a matter of hiring mercenary pilots," He replied, and that was something he was entirely prepared to play off as capitalizing on an idea he had gotten from Yvonne Davion... and he wasn't opposed to hiring mercenaries raised on Federated Suns worlds... Friesland was an excellent example that she had pointed him towards, but in part he had a hard time trusting using the MRB anymore than necessary.

The Hells black aces didn't yet exist at least not under that name, though he did have a tender out with the MRB looking for experienced ASF operating mercenaries officially. If he could find them and woo them to Davion space that would be great... but he wasn't rushing.

"And you can find some?"

He simply nodded, "Haakon's people have pilots, and the Outworlds Alliance even though its on the fringes of civilization and with queer political ideas of its own produces its share of pilots looking for adventure and pay," And periphery born pilots were unlikely to harbor any sympathies whatsoever with the capellans. He would therefore have a few months, "Quite frankly I'd love to strip all the ASF pilots from the outworlds alliance that I could they're wasted protecting that collection of hypocritical luddites, I'll hire who I can and furnish them with planes as it becomes available.... in a few years I should have more aircraft options than the 'stalker and stingrays but for the time being they're what I have." He gave another shrug and that was true there were the talks with members of House Davion, with Ian, Hanse, and their aunt but he needed to focus on the ones he was doing already... and on selling machine tooling to the other manufacturing concerns of the Federated Suns.

From what he understood, Ian was going to do a lot of courting to try and convince them to invest in expanding production which would mean money sunk into new facilities... and that was going to require more shipping between worlds. Moving raw materials to worlds, and then shipping finished goods off world to end users.

There was going to be a demand for JumpShips, or rather adding to the existing demand. One Shipyard would take forever to fix that gulf.

Henry paused, and glanced to the head of the student government, "There is something else?" Alexandria started to recount some of the chatter from New Avalon that he had been absent for. It wasn't news that She, and Justin traced their lineages and that of most of Kestrel's noble houses to veterans of the SLDF who had been landed in the face of the disastrous, cataclysmic bloodletting of the first succession war.


The conflict which had begun the trend of ripping out fusion engines those limited numbers, relatively speaking, of tanks who ran off of them to replace cored out but salvageable battlemechs... that was what the carnage unleashed by the succession wars had entailed...that and the death of whole worlds. It was that which he wanted to avoid a return to. "The First Prince has issued a call asking all those," Or at least in more practical terms representatives of those who publicly avowed descent from the SLDF, "To join him on New Avalon for a conference about the last days of the star league." Ian's conference could only really be about one thing that Henry could think about... and it was telling that Ian was calling for it while Henry would be back here on Sakhara and likely before the class graduated.

Ian had already told the Eridani Light Horse... the descendants of the 3rd​ Regimental combat team... the colonel of his regular forces who was standing nearby was a mechwarrior who had been stuffed into a stasis tube along with a scant handful of 19th​Striker MechWarriors who'd made it away from the fighting. He took the minute, the brief pause Alexandria had stopped for to signal the officer, "I see well, we might need to talk about if Kestrel is going to be involved."

"You know what its about?" Justin asked eager to be let in on the news, since obviously neither had been given indication what it might be... and Justin might not have cared about the political ramifications he was just looking to be let in on whatever was the cause of all the fuss. "Come on tell me, man."

"Not here, when we get out of the demonstration," He replied. The armor instructors were probably already annoyed enough with the mechwarrior cadets as it was. The truth was the cadets of the graduating class had seen 185mm auto cannons in the use of his demolishers already, and the Zhukov was not any faster... and while he was leaning towards a version of the Demolisher that cribbed heavily from the Von Luckner the Zhukov label was going to be circulating heavily in internal memos through the DMM, and probably going out to worlds of the Crucis March as well as he worked on advertising.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara
Alexandria and Justin both settled into the room, both eager to hear what the secret was behind the First Prince's conference that their parents had likely both mentioned while they had been on New Avalon for the remainder of the tournament. There had been a lot of talk on New Avalon. About appointments, and and also duty stations the first duty stations of of cadets from Sakhara who would be graduating...that was to say their class.

The Zhukov demonstration was on paper simply a precursor demonstration to the greater combined arms demonstrations that the class had to look forward to as part of their final semester here at the academy. It wasn't quite that simple. Far from it being that cut and dry Henry knew that the tech level across the Federated Suns ran the gamut... there was a significant gulf between the level of development across the suns... and that had probably been true even during the star league never mind once the perpetual war after the fall of the league.


Henry made a gesture to a star map, the projector had sprung to lifeas he had sat down. "That is New Valencia," He said matter of factly, "This morning the circuit returned from New Avalon with world from Blackwell. They produce a VLAR 300 powered hundred ton, for all intents and purposes version of the Marauder 3D that they developed in conjunction with the Wolf Dragoons... when the dragoons returned to the Inner Sphere they came with a down teched ANH series Annihilator assault mechs those run off of the Nissan 200Engine. New Valencia," That was to say Blackwell, "Is worried they may face a similar legal challenge from GM over their Marauder II so they want to cement agreements to expand their production. This fits neatly with Ian's interest to bring the Dragoons to the table."

Justin was the first to speak up, even if his response was a somewhat flummoxed, "... Ok."

Henry glanced to the SLDF man, and nodded, blinking slowly as he did so, "House Kurita collaborated with Amaris. We don't at this point think they participated in the Coup against House Cameron or anything like that, but after Amaris seized Terra the coordinator began passing information of SLDF movements, as well as refusing Kerensky basing rights. This resulted in among other losses the destruction 19th​ Striker Regiment of the 3rd​Regimental Combat Team of the SLDF on Talitha. The Combine's ISF has passed their movements and disposition of forces to the Usurper, where at Amity City three heavy BattleMech regiments converged on their position and wiped them out."

The Hegemony had always emphasized its pilots skill. Their survival. The hegemony simply didn't have the population base to rely on human wave tactics... or at least that was what history told them given later era reports on the likes of the Capellans and the Combine. Both of whom were enemies of the Federated Suns, and historians across the Federated Suns most important worlds were quick to equate and declare the Suns and First Prince the natural successors of the Hegemony and House Cameron just as every other successor states historians did for their home nation.

Justin simply nodded. It wasn't that he didn't have an interest in military history, that wasn't the case at all since Justin had done very well academically at Sakhara in the subject, but he didn't make the immediate connection. "You have, have to have told the first prince."

"Yes," He replied simply enough. "Which is why I assume in a few months that the vice chancellor," Lieutenant Colonel Coleridge, "expects the Eridani coming to tour the campus."

"But that's not all,"

"No, very little of the 19th​ survived the force reconnaissance mission carried out on Kerensky's orders as part of Operation Intruder. Amity City was situated near a major hegemony training center and storage depot, and there was extensive resistance on Talitha more broadly. At the realization that the Combine had tipped off the Rim World, and they were cut off from evacuation from the planet the 19th​ made a stand before attempting to withdraw into the deep underground... most of them didn't make it. Parts of the Regimental Reconnaissance Company survived, and portions of a Battle Company, but by and large casualties were total. The Rim World had no concerns about civilian losses on a planet that was a center piece of resistance against Amaris."

There was a pause as he left the matter as it was at the end of that sentence.

"Its not that simple. Talthia was liberated, and used as a staging ground, so something else must have happened... and the Eridani ..." Alexandria paused, "The 3rd​ RCT didn't know... they moved to join the Free Worlds League after Kentares, and the massacres on Sendai." She pointed out, which was true of course. The Eridani Light Horse had refused to leave with Kerensky on the Exodus but had then straddled the line in waiting to see what had happened... and well then the first succession war had broken out.

"Talitha was a Hegemony world," The Colonel remarked speaking up, "The underground depot complex was a castle support structure containing stasis tubes. The original plan was to wait out the usurpers forces for reinforcements from the rest of the SLDF for their arrival in force. There was a delay, and then some kind of technical problem. The result of which was that the SLDF didn't receive a direct briefing on what had happened."

"That's not quite true," Clay interrupted, "Kerensky did know by that point, he'd been informed, had intercepts of HPG streaming video communications between Amaris and Minoru Kurita, but I don't think at that point it would have made any difference. Once Terra was liberated Kerensky was probably already thinking of fleeing the Inner Sphere, and even if he hadn't made up his decision I don't think further proof would have changed his mind. Ian is hoping it will sway the Dragoons to coming back into the Federated Suns service, I assume so he can pitch them at the Combine,"

"The Dragoons are descendants of Kerensky's exodus."

"As are the RAC..." None of whom were present in this briefing, but that was a coincidence... the issue of the clans was something that was going to have to be addressed but it wouldn't be today. "just different branches, different clans. Kerensky's son established a hereditary warrior nobility of sorts based on genetic lineage. Its a mess of a society, if I'm being honest... but the truth is its not just that its that there is an Amaris pretender in the periphery out there as well." There was a gasp of shock from Alexandria and then Justin all but jumping out of the plush chair he'd been slouching in. "Someone or some network of people have been supporting Amaris's descendants and in this case they've been preparing for another conflict with the inner sphere... and that's one more enemy, at least one more enemy to add to the roster that the Federated Suns has to contend with, and there is a lot of fighting we can expect to do in the near future," which was in no small part why New Valencia was going to receive a positive response to its expressed interest in getting the machinery necessary to manufacture the Nissan 200 engine regardless of how he personally felt about the Annihilator as a battlemech.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara
Alexandria had spent the better part of the morning just walking the campus grounds. She'd gotten up earlier than she needed to, her earliest class simply couldn't come early enough. Sakhara had changed with the awarding of the county from when she had first been admitted. She had arrived on the same JumpShip that had brought the then freshly minted count of Sakhara but also the same jumpship laden with the heavy battlemechs, and attendants.

... not though the vessels that would come later.

Still there had been a handful of retainers then, men who ... whose counterparts would have been her own ancestors. Men who after the fall of the Star League had joined the Federated Suns and become members of aristocracy as a result. The 7th​ Crucis Lancers had units which traced to SLDF men who had joined the AFFS after Kerensky had left.

Which was the yet other side of the coin. The hulking infantry officer who all too frequently served as as Clay's bodyguard was a descendant of soldiers who had left with Kerensky's exodus. The Robinson Cluster was a military unit here to support, and protect Clay if Amaris's descendants came calling.... which was a horrifying prospect in its own right. That that was a concern as real as the combine threat.

Then there were all the other details, but most of all that the Combine had provided information to the Rim World Republic that had bloodied the SLDF. Done more than just bloodied some units, her uncle... Justin's father had dealt with the Eridani... and if he hadn't been familiar that fourth chair, that empty fourth chair in the room and what it symbolized was there.

She hadn't brought it up yet despite being admitted into the room and the mild insanity ... at least for now had kept her from doing so.

Henry seemed less worried about that, at present he was too busy grumbling about how his original plans for Bristol were going to be delayed by the trip to Kathil. Something about DropShip production here and how he was waiting for men to return. There were papers from Galax, andFederated Boeing that must have arrived from the same New Avalon hailing star lord that arrived on the circuit with the other news, with the rest of the mail.

A circuit which readily facilitated couriered messages from home much easier. In theory of course the HPG could have been even faster but ComStar charged exorbitant rates for live communication, and even at those rates they were not always available... for unknown arcane reasons... or if one were more suspiciously inclined arbitrary availability.

"Tell Federated Boeing that once we've recovered the Richard IIIthat we will pass it along to them,"

The Captain paused. He did look sort of like his nominal superior, a man who spent too much time in low gravity from the looks of him, "But we already have the ship," He replied.

"I know that and you know that but," He held up another courier delivered letter, "I'm sure someone is reading our mailto Boeing before it reaches the board, so Yvonne is wanting to see who gets that message and spring a little trap on them, it might be mostly harmless industrial espionage, they haven't done anything per se yet, but it could be foreign spies, and DMI wants to deal with that, and if it is internal someone will get a ruler smack from the civilian ministry about what's polite among gentlemen." Another shrug, as if the statement wasn't so characteristically flippant to utter, "The Richard by itself isn't much useful to us anyway...getting the class into production that would be so much more useful but again that's largely on the basis using cargo dropships of a certain tonnage along the circuit," but then that was still a matter of JumpShip carrying.

The holographic map was a familiar one, it was only distinct in that the three dimensional star chart was of superlative size for her to see in detail the jump route that reached the capital, and traced to the other worlds. The expansion of the circuit was already facilitating a much larger volume of trade between those worlds it touched and those worlds involved in the circuit were already being spoken to about how that grater trade might be expanded further. In short that there would be investment in them, not just in money but that the home ministry was looking to expand education prospects to the public as there would be need to be more workers, in other diversified fields.

She knew that because by this point the circuit had been in place that people of importance trusted it for their mail to be carried to Sakhara to their children. Her parents trusted it to bring her mail, and instructions even without knowing the latest details. They also trusted the mail to go the other direction from Kestrel, to New Avalon. Alexandria understood that within Sakhara they were waiting for Haakon's return, though not explicitly stated but most likely she assumed with further JumpShips to expand the carrying trade with which would carry goods.

Sakkhara was famous for being the site of the Academy, and the wealth and prestige of its alumni of course. The new industrial megaplex which had sprung up changed that dimension. There was a spur, had always been a spur where ships could depart the rendezvous point to travel to Robinson, but not there were earmarked lines for Hoff, Royal, New Ivaarsen and a handful of others. There were shipping manifests being repaired for DMM units.

"Lord Aaron mentioned the raids by the Galedon Regulars." He had mentioned them as they had departed New Avalon, but it had been something that had been discussed while they had been there.

"They're certainly a problem." Henry replied to her observation. "They hit Kesai at the tail end of last year, and seem to be looping back we think they're looking to do a bit more, but Samsonov, their commanding officer is proving hard to predict." There was a pause, and then wistfully, "We'd love to trap them somewhere. Samsonov has competition or disagreements in the DCMS its not impossible he might try and raid here for supplies..."

"Might?"

"Its always possible that if he attacks here, some sword of light officer will think he's getting too much of a fat head and give him a hair cut." He blew out a wistful sigh, "Not that I'm counting to heavily on that, Samsonov isn't stupid but he does seem callous given the reports of how he uses his supporting arms. The consensus from high authority is that he won't try, but its not out of the realm of possibility."

Alexandria thought about the shipyard , and the skeleton of the JumpShip under construction. The tournament on New Avalon had hardly been the first time she'd driven a battlemech but it had been the first time with that size of spectator crowd, but it hadn't been areal battle. Not that her graduating class would be the first line of defense.

In the event Sakhara was attacked they would be expected to assist in the defense... but for the first time in centuries really Sakhara had a much larger presence of defenders ... and there was the expected visit by both the Eridani Light Horse , and the Robinson Rangers.

Heedless of those thoughts Henry gestured to the shipping directives. "When Haakon gets back we're going to start shipping orders to some of the other DMM units, those on nearby worlds. Nothing really fancy but a lance of Sentry BattleMechs are going to Ivaarsen we'd really like the Chasseurs to consider newer mech designs, most of the rest will be shipments of Sphinx Medium Tanks. Ivaarsen if they're not interested in the Sentry will likely ended up buying more Centurions, and the Sentry will go on to other worlds on the frontier. Ivaarsen may of course end up wanting larger 'mechs but its a wait and see sort of thing"

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara
Bristol was intended to produce Gauss Rifles. That massive castle brian sized storage depot was going to be put into, put to good use protected as it was by producing Gauss rifles and fusion engines and other components. Most production would be simpler things. Most of what it would produce though were going to be things already produced on Sakhara... it was just the Gauss rifles when they started becoming available, well would be a product they insisted were just on Bristol.

They wouldn't be. The truth was if not for the threat of the Galedon Regulars in the vicinity he'd have agreed with, or less reservedly agreed, Lord Aaron that there needed to be more staging forces and bases of supply and for that Hoff was very much an ideal. There was just too much to do before they could move on that. He needed to produce the things in particular the armor and light battlemechs he had mentioned to Alexandria the day before fill gaps in lines.

The essence screen was a wash of numbers. The value of equipment in monetary, and more abstract terms... and a spread sheet to track income and expenditures. It was also a vastly different, exponentially larger volume of exchange than what were calculated by the Davion analysts.

... but that was for any number of differences in what was calculated. The slantbacks that he planned to expand at market carried davion built weapons. The factories making those parts didn't require personnel in the sense that the SFU and MFU black boxes had not material gain to having a squishy human watching them. The techs were there purely as a safety and emergency response measure, in the event something went wrong.

A fire, or the possibility of attempts at sabotage. Sakhara, and probably Bristol would need to have precautions taken... further precautions taken since the realization had set in, that there were a lot of eggs in the basket. Clay expected that there would be something, which in his initial plans had been what had made him prefer to keep things close at hand. The county was close to the academy, and even the planetary ruler kept a major residence nearby... which had been where Yvonne Davion resided during her previous visits rather than commute from Memphis.

Bristol was going to be different though. The aircraft production there would probably, intentionally be laid down near the major AFFS training center at Ashwood. Most of the armor construction, and battlemech construction once that came online would be closer to the capital of Cardiff but rebuilding the industrial megaplex that had existed during the Star League even with transferring factory units from the essence would take time.

The JumpShip yard over Sakhara had taken eight factory units to assemble into the constellation necessary to produce the Star Lord class Jump Ship. He had recognized the political interest and thus pressure to look elsewhere. Officially Yvonne neither had the authority nor had been crass enough to point out that his time brevetted to the post on Kathil would count towards his time in grade in the AFFS. Not that that was really a concern, the AFFS was professional yes but no one after Mallory's World, and Halstead would have reasonably expected him to act as lance commander or probably even a company commander save perhaps in an emergency or the first prince was involved.

There had been rumors after the fact, that the Davion Guards had been talked about but that probably would have been too prone to complaints of nepotism. He'd only heard that second hand though from Lex and she'd apparently only heard it from some cadet on New Avalon who'd been more interested in the Long Swords her school had received and were putting through their paces at the time.

The chime at the door signaled an expected notification that he had been expecting since he had received the notification of Jump Ship transition into the system. The charging and docking stations at Zenith, and Nadir insured that things were safe, but also that they had plenty of warning in the event anyone showed up unannounced. Today's arrivals were just one group on a long list.

There were visits to be expected. Then there were the ones he wasn't planning on just yet. Yvonne Davion had suggested hiring mercenaries, with a short list to go along with it. The 15th​ Drakon hadn't been one of those but they had a good reputation... and to be fair it wasn't as if Henry was somehow above tweaking the Combine's nose as the aide to the Precentor New Avalon had happened to mention they were talking to the Combine about a long term contract. In part probably because his request had specifically asked after units of SLDF lineage.

It wasn't them, he was a little disappointed. He'd been hoping it might be the two battalions either here to accept his tendered offer or to enter negotiations. The New Valencia assigned DropShip though suggested that even if it wasn't mercenaries that it might be either communications from the dragoons or that their corporate partnership based there might have wanted to move forward on other agreements.

Blackwell already manufactured already manufactured parts for the Dragoons, and was still shipping them parts from what Henry understood, and that was fine but it didn't explain the Dragoons readiness or ability to reequip. It was just that Henry didn't actually need an explanation for that, he knew how that worked. The lawyers on New Avalon were supposed to be doing their due diligence on manufacturing new Shoguns, but he planned to push a similar offer to Blackwell to lease and or sell them an engine manufacturing factory similar to Achernar. This one though for the 255 Strand...whether or not the Dragoons were worth that much to New Valencia Henry didn't know for sure, but he assumed they were.

The new production Shogun ... a nominally singular demonstration model he planned to ship to New Valencia for them to put through their paces and report back to the dragoons was intended to see if they would bite. He wanted feedback from the lawyers before march, but that was why the jumpship circuit was critical... but it wouldn't hurt anything to let Blackwell's people actually test the machine here, since it had been outfitted with much more standard parts.

Henry swiped his hand dismissing the essence's mass of balance sheets and inventory and the reports of Bristol and Sakhara facilities before activating the conventional terminal, and the school's electronic mail system. The Dragoons had a reputation, that meant even if they were just hangers on Blackwell of New Valencia had a reputation, and that meant the Vice Chancellor was going to expect an invitation and it made perfect sense to invite the graduating class along... but even if it had been the 15th​ he'd had already planned to invite them to meet with the graduating class, or if the Eridani had shown up early, or any number of other visitors.

Justin must have already been on his device since he was the first to respond and half of the message was about the Cataphract anyway, and what plans were for production of that by other manufacturers. Henry just fired off a second message to meet him at the hangars, the truthwas unless GM or Blackwell or maybe Kallon moved on that he didn't' see production moving forward on the cataphract outside of small batches in the near future. Any small production was very likely toend up in training mechs for gunnery practice. Kallon hadn't committed yet on the Cataphract, and it made sense... things were moving very very fast by the standards of the succession wars, manufacturers probably weren't used to things moving this quickly...and were on the backfoot, especially with Ian adamant that all of this needed to be done.

Justin managed to beat him to the hangar , and be there before anyone else. "So its not the Eridani?"

"No its Blackwell, and I suspect probably one or two dragoons that hang around to keep an eye on things," He replied to the question squinting slightly against the bright sun to see if any one else was heading this way... Lieutenant Colonel Coleridge was in a meeting with the chancellor but a meeting the chancellor would likely release him from very shortly. Sakhara might not have been Nagelring and this not the Lyran commonwealth but networking was a critical skill to any officer... you; had to be aware of what your friends and also your potential rivals at court were doing after all. "The dragoons that are with them are probably mechwarriors." That was an assumption, he didn't know that for sure, but he had no qualms passing along to Justin the onboard manifest from New Valencia aboard the DropShip that had been transmitted.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara
The company of cadets had milled about. Most had gotten so used to the JumpShip circuit by the end of last year that the novelty of arriving DropShips to load products from the factories had since worn off. There were exceptions but that predominated with younger students and largely as new 'mech designs appeared on tarmacs.

That was all too frequently a blink and you missed it affair anyway. The older cadets simply didn't have the time normally to waste on these things ordinarily. Alexandria certainly didn't given her responsibilities with the student government, and Justin only occasionally could but largely by happenstance of testing the cataphract. It had been about the latter that he wanted to talk, but there had yet to be an adequate commitment from Kallon just yet.

Henry was irritable about communication prospects with Mitchell, but he wasn't going to let it show to the arriving Blackwell people. Robinson had already relayed that it was unlikely the two Dragoon presence were 'true born', which was a relief. He was still leery of advertising his small contingent of Elementals even if they weren't in their armor.

They wouldn't' recognize his Rabid Fox as a clan mech unless they couldget under the hood, and even then they probably wouldn't conclusively be able to say the 70 tonner was such... he doubted they would have enough time for that... since Henry didn't intend to allow them access to his personal mech anyway.

"We should see Hanse at some point," Henry remarked, stowing his annoyance. The NAIS and its establishment required royal patronage, required a commitment that Ian just didn't have the time for, not with everything else going on but it was the perfect use of his brother, as heir, who already needed to be close at hand to spend time on. There was going to be wide scale time spent testing and evaluating mechs, "And besides the Eridani," And the potential of the Dragoons arriving in numbers greater than the two Warriors... and the more of those who arrived the harder it was going to be to conceal his limited numbers though they were Hells Horse. Hanse Davion wasn't here... but he could see trying to push more machines to New Avalon, to New Avalon's Pratt & Whitney facilities to make Blackwell and the Dragoons more present there...but as it was the two Dragoon warriors were already looking at his Battle Company contingent here in their SLDF uniforms, which wouldhave been undistinguishable from many of the mercenaries and other units who still wore such khaki battle dress. "So?"

"The Dragoons have a fearsome reputation," Alexandria remarked, "I remember when they arrived in the Inner Sphere. "The Dragoons had arrived in 3005, and had departed Davion service several years before the Battle of Mallory's World. There had been no overlap between his entry with the Federated Suns, and those of the Dragoons time with the Federated Suns, and thus this was the first time he was being formally introduced, "They caused a stir with so many pristine battlemechs, they say they got lucky finding an old SLDF depot."

He snorted, "Hardly." He replied,

The countess of Kestrel nodded. "I've seen how they've re supplied. Disappearing into the periphery and returning to fullstrength." A ten month disappearance and then all of a sudden back to full strength and ready to move on to their next contract with anotehr great house.

Ian had hoped that the Dragoons would renew their contract, "More machines out storage, but they weren't lucky." Yvonne Davion had made clear her biggest problem with the Dragoons claims was how good the Dragoons techs, and support staff were at maintaining their various machines. It was true that the Dragoons wanted to buy local parts, wanted companies to manufacture for them spare parts, but the Dragoons had entered the Inner Sphere awash with spares, and with techs who knew their work. Men who were educated and experienced in away that by and large didn't exist in human space on average. Certainly having them just appear on the scene had done more than just alarm House Cunningham... and other people focused in on how strange the Dragoons were, there were yet other eccentricities to the Dragoons.

The dragoons though had been in the Inner Sphere more than a decade now. Now in their third contract for a great house in the service of House Marik and the Free Worlds League. That at least meant that the Dragoons were unlikely to attack the Federated Suns... "Keeping them out of Combine service is what I'm really focused on." At least with the dragoons themselves, right now Henry was a bit unsecure as to how far he should push, but that was in part the legal stumbling block of such ... and the need to avoid tipping his hand too far to the Dragoons... from his own experience with his own Hells Horse never mind the reaction of the Davion personnel he could expect the Dragoons to stay away from the combine... but the question was them telling Clan Wolf, or worse the rest of the clan council about the last days of the Star League.

"And there is a reason you're not telling them?" Alexandria divined in what was more a rhetorical question than anything even as his body language shifted uneasily. "Its not the dragoons themselves."

"Kerensky seems more than a bit rash." He allowed, "But no, its complicated by people and ideas... and," And that people would misunderstand, or had malformed ideas about things, " That made things sound so clear cut, but they weren't. "Robinson belongs a blood house, just as Kerensky does, the core ranks among their warriors, but they belong to different clans... and from what I understand there are pirates in the Rimward periphery running around with the colors and machines of the Amaris Fusiliers... there might even be another Amaris pretender running around." It was hard to get news from the periphery news took forever to make it one way never mind two way communications, "Whatever idealism you have about the Star League, I'd recommend you put it aside," He whispered, "I'm going to go talk to Blackwell to see how much we can expand machine production." The third succession war was basically over he figured. He expected that historians would speak of the expected explosion, no pun intended, in conflict that that would be the 4th​ war.

Justin, largely well not oblivious to the grand strategy of the galaxy at war, but still more focused on the here and now, "I'm going to get the Cataphract powered up." It was after all part of why Blackwell was here.

Alexandria watched him go. "We're trying to make common cause with House Steiner."

"Yeah, Ian has been talking with them for a while, and I hope it works." He stopped as the Vice Chancellor appeared and made his way through the throng of cadets. "Coleridge."

"Clay, the Dragoons people?" He nodded at the two warriors, "Good, good. We need to make a good impression they're mercenaries, how do you think we should go about that?"

Not, Clay wanted to reply by putting them up against his assault cluster that was for sure. Clay was pretty sure there would be no getting around that, but he needed the dragoon's consent for Blackwell to do its work without issue... and Ian wanted them back with the AFFS fighting the Combine this time instead of the Capellans. "I think they'll be interested in testing the graduating class," Justin was already out of earshot, but Don Juan was eager to prove his own mettle, and volunteered before anyone else could speak up, and that suited Henry just fine.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dragoons 1.1
Since the warriors, of Clan Wolf, hadn't brought a full lance with them ... well Henry wasn't surprised this took the form of individual combat, simulated of course. "What are we looking at?" Henry asked peering over the display. He really would have expected Marauder II assault battlemechs but was disappointed... though that was probably to the cadet's benefit.

"Two Medium mechs, sir. Two 55 Tonners. Hoplite and Wolverine."

The Wolverine was a 6R nothing special there. The Hoplite had been lost to the Inner Sphere, and its presence was probably nothing. Maybe he'd misunderstood, or overestimated the dislike of anything Wolverine. Not that Henry particularly cared, he might have to ask his own Clan Hells Horse personnel, but that would be waiting until after the Dragoons left. Henry made a mental note as he looked at the rotating holographic profiles to ask about the Hoplite as well.

No los tech.

Not that he'd been really expecting any. "Alright carry on." This would be a simulated fight. Don Juan destined for the seventh crucis lancers was chomping at the bit at least as much as Justin was, and to be fair the two Dragoons seemed eager for the match as well. Sakhara had after all been founded and had trained SLDF officers in the distant era.

Henry moved away from his two men in their khakis and stepped towards Alexandria. "They're going to do something rash."

"Most likely yes," He replied. "But its two on two. I like the 4 Bravo, but its a ranged platform through and through, built for fighting at range. It would make sense to get up close. "He replied... not voicing his suspicion that the 4B might well have been outfitted by the clans to reflect their ideas of how gentlemanly warfare between warriors should be conducted. If he were being honest the Combine would probably liked it quite well for their own duels, and the culture that had developed around those niceties.

"The machine was extinct until the dragoons returned."

He nodded, "Yes that's right, I don't see much wrong with it," A clan model would be absurdly dangerous with their missiles... but the 4B was just an introtech machine he'd seen the readouts, and certainly the simmunitions were configured to act in accordance with the accepted ranges. "Let the boys have their fun Lex. If they acquit themselves well, all the better." If they didn't, they'd be a lesson for the other cadets, and hopefully a lesson to the boys.

"Something is bothering you about the Dragoon's visit." It wasn't a question.

He shook his head, "Just something Coleridge said, don't think they'll be satisfied if they can beat the boys up. Don't particularly want them starting trouble with my men either."

"Some kind of clan scuffle?"

"I don't know how well Wolf and Horse are getting on," He replied, "But I suspect that its just a rivalry but its a distraction I don't think anyone needs." More so than she realized. Nothing he had said was actually wrong, but he glanced over the deep red sands of the desert field. If he kept his assault cluster out of sight people were going to mention it because that was unusual. The RAC presence with their heavy armor had become ubiquitous the cadets thought they were a bit queer in custom but they were used to the presence of the tankers.

Really that there were only two was enough that he wasn't especially worried about the combine showing up. He'd rely on his men regardless of their origins... and then he'd deal with the consequences if it came to that... even if that meant Jaime Wolf showing up at his damned doorstep afterwards... he just wanted more time, though he wasn't quite sure if more time would give him any better ideas.

There was a click of an ornate golden pocket watch, a ridiculous absurd piece of art, "Well, I'd say we should begin."

The vice chancellor nodded to the old instructor who was holding the watch. Coleridge had been the most outspoken in support of things like this, demonstrations to attempt to show the quality of cadets and their abilities but he wouldn't have done that without support. Not that he had to do much in the way of finagling to manage this, the Vice Chancellor had all the pull he needed just from his post, but likely with everything that had happened since Henry had come onboard and with all the effort put into the school Coleridge and his supporters of alumni statesmen and the truth was he expected those communications were made much easier by the jumpship circuit which carried news readily from New Avalon... but also those men wanted the cadets to show their worth to the Dragoons.

Henry watched the officiator of the exercise move to a lectern with microphones galore and that transmitted to both the four machines waiting, and boomed throughout the dug out observation space from which the class were gathered. Henry tuned out the formalities, they were irrelevant to him and he had more important things to concern himself with.

The Wolverine was a superlative medium mech, perhaps not perfect but a reliable and well rounded machine, "its the inverse of the Trebuchet Centurion pairing." Alexandria observed. She was referencing in contrast to the trebuchet the missile boat involved on the Dragoon side, the 4B Hoplite carried an LRM 15 but mounted a smaller 220 series DAV Fusion Engine. It was slower than its escort... though on the other hand it also mounted a Magna Hellstar PPC. The Wolverine carried a heavier 275, the ubiquitous across the inner sphere core tek model rugged and reliable and capable of pushing the 55 tonner farther and faster than the other mechs on the field.

That mobility wouldn't necessarily do it much good, "I don't think that's part of the plan, the Wolverine could split off from the Hoplite," It could, it had that ability, but for what good ...not much that Henry could see in the comparatively limited space of the pretend battlefield. Close enough that Henry wouldn't have been surprised if Diaz and Allard both had agreed to move aggressively into close quarters space.

Mitchell reached him as the dust began to kick up. No indication of Zellbringen then as the Wolverine jumped, and the Hoplite slathered a volley of paint laden simmunition missiles towards the cadets starting point as the two mechs began to move apart. The experimental centurion pilot nodded, "Shouldn't expect a long fight, not enough room, and too many machines involved." And not the right personalities for there to be a stalk around.

"No longer than the matches on New Avalon," He agreed to his his test pilot. As he had attempted to repeatedly beat into their skulls, an official called a simulated PPC hit from the Hellstar the hoplite carried. In real battle, where both 'teams' had had to advance to contact with the enemy the Hoplite only about four hundred meters distant would have been shooting long before this, though it had connected solidly on Justin, the Cataphract's large laser was still in range to return fire. In a protracted firefight, which the three of them, including Alexandria, were in agreement this was unlikely to be the seventy tonner would run hot if Justin wasn't careful... but no Zellbringen Don Juan had thrown his own machine forward and was rushing the faster Wolverine.
--

Notes: For Reference I use this I hope this link doesn't frag: https://www.wolfsdragoons.com/downl...iles - some good stuff/4SW_Wolfs_Dragoons.pdf.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dragoons 1.2
Sakhara had been established by SLDF officers, and approved to train SLDF officers, which had in the era of the star league placed in it quite select company even beyond its present standing.

Alexandria knew the Dragoons were warriors proven, she'd seen roms of the mercenaries in action before... both their time in Davion service and after they had passed over to the capellans... and now they were further afield in the Free Worlds League. To that extent her actual experience with the dragoons were beyond her... so far as she was aware this was the first time that the Dragoons had visited Sakhara certainly that was the treatment and behavior of the two visiting mechwarriors. The black and red emblem of the Dragoons broad on their machines' shoulders, promenient in the images of the cameras.

Four names were up on the display.

Omar Fazio

Milo Ramsay

The two dragoon MechWarriors piloting the Wolverine and Hoplite respectively. The names opposite them were of course their Sakhara opposition. So far as Alexandria understood while good mechwarriors there was nothing special about them in the Dragoons ranks. This didn't strike her as some sort of punishment detail though...assigning a pair of warriors to liaise with a critical supply manufacturer wasn't the sort of thing you allocated to screw ups.

Henry had been tight lipped unusually so about his allies... except that their alliance stemmed from an enemy that had been the cause of the downfall of the star league. Somewhere out there was house Amaris lurking, skulking in the dark reaches of space... and from what she understood considered likely to manage an attack... and up until now she hadn't considered what that might have entailed.

Alexandria wasn't stupid or unobservant. Attacking the county seat would have meant moving across the wide open 'seas' of red sand dunes for miles. The RAC while an armor formation had geography on its side, the breaks in sightline and the germanium mines from which Clay likely derived no small amount of income were protected from approach by sheer cliff, and running water of a fast moving river. The factories and mech facilities to support his troops were deep underground protected from the beating heat of the sun, and included the heavily protected bunkers that the Stingrays could launch from.

The Combine troops pursuing the Rabid fox on the toxic surface of Mallory's World had chased across open ground, and thus it was easy to make the comparison to the defenses built. If anyone thought about it for any amount of time it would be, it might bet taken as just amore prepared version of that. Certainly the Combine's choice to rely upon the Elan vitale of independent companies to carry the day would face a murder field to cross to lay siege.

He had mentioned months ago that a cluster was a unit of organization. He had made a brief explanation of their system. Robinson was easy, it was just the same as 'Wolf's'. The same was true of 'dragoon' and 'assault' they were weight related, not purpose per se. An Assault Cluster had been defined as 'used for defensive operations and siege warfare, they are generally close enough to their supply lines to avoid resupply concerns, and so place a greater emphasis on heavier auto cannons and missile weaponry.' The devastators certainly fit that criteria, She abruptly grabbed his sleeve, "The Dragoons arrived with five regiments of BattleMechs," They had arrived with supporting arms, but just so, they were supporting combat arms. "Why aren't there-"

Henry's expression had shifted, "Because I need Robinson to defend here," He replied.

That didn't answer the question.

BattleMechs would have only strengthened his defensive position, she knew that, everyone knew that. The fight between wolves and cadets was wholly forgotten. Justin moving to close on the screen ignored. "You're bait?" She half asked, half accused. His denial did nothing, because in a way she'd suspected that Sakhara had always been too close to the Combine border, close enough to tempt the Snakes to do something stupid in the name of honor and glory for the dragon... except it was more than for just House Kurita to try and make good against the defeats on Mallory's World, and Halstead station before it... it was for the enemy of the long dead Star League to see an opportunity to attack.

At least Alexandria Cunningham, Countess of Kestrel had convinced herself of. The SLDF in exile might have since divided itself into great clans with no doubt prominent families but if Amaris attacked then whatever arguments between Wolf and Horse would be put aside.

For Henry Clay this was a blindside of a conversation he had not expected. He had been warned of course of the threat the Combine potentially posed, and he had planned for it. He also had the warning of how the Combine would react to the knowledge of the coordinator's duplicity and actions in regards to the Amaris crisis. More than that though for who's grasp of clan society while not perfect he understood significantly better what the Clans reaction would be to that knowledge. So, no he was no here as bait to provoke an attack.

He was inclined to protest the accusation, but there were too many people around. It was only the cadets engrossed focus on the paint splattering the combatant mechs that kept them from noticing immediately. "Will the Combine try something maybe," He replied tersely, "But that was always a risk," The factories here did make that a larger risk, "But it wasn't staked out that way. The Combine has a tendency to unpredictable," That was especially true, though the warning hadn't yet been delivered to him that Yvonne Davion had pushed out a warning that there were rumors of an attempt made on the Coordinator's life by rasalhague separatists but that warning ferried by JumpShip circuit was on its way and expected to be delivered before any attack could arrive, but even so still not here as bait, "will they attack, eventually yes, tomorrow next month probably not. The cluster was assembled as a defensive unit, its why its a pure armor formation." He repeated, "This isn't the place for this conversation though.


Yes, Henry was willing to admit would be willing to admit to anyone that, the Combine would attack 'eventually', but he had no reason tothink it was to be immediate. That window had passed when the Combine had moved to attack his taking up the title of Count. In the traditions of the Inner Sphere had been something that would have made the rotation of noble circles... the Combine had always since the days before the star league as peerages and knighthoods hawkishly watched the lists and gazette publications of the old Terran Hegemony, and the Federated Suns, that was what polite civilized society did, and had done since before human spaceflight.

The Combine couldn't possibly have missed that, "And the gazette for Bristol might not have reached the combine as of yet." She acknowledged.

"It is possible it has," As a document, as words on paper went the transmission size was easily within even a weakened HPG network's capability, but the links of transmission station to station along the chain would be expensive to have beamed out. Further, the publication announcing the dukedom also did not explicitly mention to the public reader the shipyards at Sakhara. The most cynical of readers would likely assume that this was Ian Davion awarding a greater post to a court favorite, and lethal captain of men. "And its equally possible that the Combine has come to expect an attack from our side sooner rather than later... I've arranged the forces here to defend the planet, and the Academy." he reiterated.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dragoons 1.3

Justin rattled against his harness even in spite of the seventy tonner's gyro efforts to compensate. It was actually one of the things that the simulator pods over exagerated for, most of the time in a real mech getting jostled was bad but the simulator pods were often much worse to the point of extreme. To the point that some times cadets actually got sick and puked coming out of a particularly bad run... he didn't think it was that bad but he hardly cared for the experience either... being jostled in a real mech was something he could deal with. The added electronics causing his machine to rumble weren't nearly so bad.

His gauges were a mix of colors, and flag notices. The dragoon pilot,no surprise, was good... and further out than this artificially compressed battle space he'd have been worried about getting where he needed to be, but the Dragoon pilot had made the mistake in not retreating. Henry would have backed off, he'd have jinked the rabid fox around hills or taken a rifleman to keep Justin at bay if his opening shots hadn't been satisfactory. That wasn't to say the Dragoon pilot was an idiot, it was just the wrong move in this situation because he'd let Justin Allard get this close, close enough that his big ole assault auto cannon was just now in range.

He ignored his heat gauge and the protest of his machine. The simulator blasted in hot hair through the ac vents, and rattled the cockpit more than the Cataphract actually did when the AC 20 he'd insisted on having mounted on his machine stitched into the opposing machine with vibrant high visibility paint.

Justin had no reason to think the Dragoon mechs were anything special and even if they had been it wouldn't have mattered. The data programmed into the simulators were to calculate their performance, and their simulated munitions as those of the succession wars. He did understand that aggression was what would win things here, he needed to stay in a close quarters operation that would favor his heavier battlemech... to play to the Cataphract's strengths.

For Henry, even though he hadn't been able to watch the entirety of the tournament held on New Avalon this tactic had been demonstration the very first bout Justin had fought in. It was a style that wasn't hampered by being the black jack and while it could have been used in a Centurion or Rifleman Justin had had a hand in selecting his Cataphract's armament... for a mechwarrior's performance that could make a world of difference.

Given the confines of space imposed on them, the Dragoons would have been better off he expected with two Wolverines. It wasn't as if the Dragoons didn't field units with high homogeneity across machines...not to the degree of the Hegemony of old of course, but he suspected in part because of the warrior ethos which had taken root in Clan culture... the Hoplite was a battlemech, its pilot was a MechWarrior... but in the limited range it couldn't shine here inthe way that the Hunchback would have, or a Marauder, or like Lex's Orion. That didn't compel the Dragoon pilot to give up... especially as Henry suspected that in a dueling culture with an emphasis on long range gunnery... the Hoplite was probably a fine choice among secondline picks.

He didn't make the suggestion of two wolverines, "They'd have been better off with a pair of Centurions equipped for close quarters combat," He quipped instead, "There is no reason that Blackwell's modular equipment for combat vehicles shouldn't be viable on BattleMechs." Part of reiterating it was that Sakhara's prestigious numbers would exert more pressure than anything he could do short of running to the First Prince... and part of the reason the Badger and Bandit, outside of their steep price tags, was Blackwells tendency towards exclusivity. That couldn't be left to stand, something had to be done especially given their ability to produce a 'domestic' assault battlemech design... and the Marauder II was a whole other kettle of fish... for entirely other reasons.

There was a sudden low woo from the throng of students as paints plattered upon battleplate... the real brawling had begun and Henryhoped that there would be no repeat of actual mech fisticuffs in thisbout as had shown up on New Avalon. Henry was fully prepared to letthe fight play itself out on its own, but he sudden felt the tingle, and the update through his essence... that something was suddenly very wrong. Not that that was much warning, an alarm klaxon in thelearning center sounded, that was mirrored by outdoor alarms triggering.

An unscheduled jumpship had arrived... not an attack. Henry was the only who could see it. Transmitted returns were going to need seconds to pipe in, but his essence was already showing him the new arrival... Haakon's jumpship, as were the other trade vessels, was intact but already broadcasting an emergency signal... which was not something he would have done if everything were normal.
--
The other shoe had dropped... and Henry hated that it had happened with the Dragoons were present. Haakon had been doing normal business in the Outworld Alliance. There had been protests from the populace and grumbling... and it would have been given the proximity to the Kuritan border all that easy for the Combine to have launched a raid.

His eyes watched the rotating form. At least the outworld alliance's reputation for ASF pilots was a well founded stereotype. That was unfortunately the only high note of Haakon's after action report...and that it didn't appear that they had been pursued. They had departed OA space as other reports had begun coming in though.

WarShip.

It was the chatter... and it as the timing this completely tossed all concerns of holding talks with the Dragoons askew.

"Pinto-class." He replied a tad hoarse, "Probably built at the RimWorld yard at Alpheratz," Or at least that was what he was desperately hoping there were certainly vastly worse possibilities ... and he would have to contemplate those later... butthe inner sphere had lost its last warship officially in the second succession war they had been extinct since the 29th​ century as he understood it. That was something he would have to look into, but it wasn't an immediate concern... it was but not the top of the priority list... a part of him wanted to tell Haakon to tell Mountain Wolf that he was fully prepared to loan them the funds to rebuild in the Lyran Commonwealth or the Federated Suns and begin production of both the Merlin, and their previous design... but there were more people here than just him and the Merchant Marine Captain. "My bigger concern is that its operational, and no one scrubbed the Amaris colors off of it... we need to send this to New Avalon by courier."

No one objected that he had just gotten back... not given the face of this. He was going to have to leave again... and he wasn't sure he'd be able to stop by Bristol. He was going to need to expand ASFproduction. The OA hadn't destroyed the ship, but hey had made it leave but the problem was that the other attacks reported other vessels in Rim World colors... including ground forces

The other thing he could do with money, the thing he could do publicly with money was tell the precentor Sakhara he was going to make a live HPG transmission to New Avalon. And damn the cost of the phone bill.

"Of course," The Chancellor agreed... before waiting a moment, and then, "We should inform Robinson as well."

"You're right," He replied, "I'll go to ComStar, and send a live transmission to both Aaron, and Ian that way both of them know before we get underway to New Avalon." Henry glanced around. This had been a military emergency, Haakon's distress signal... the damaged dropships aboard some of the trade fleet... had warranted a combined response from Sakhara's governing authorities the civil government, the academy... and also the inclusion of local noble retainers... and the Dragoon presence. The situation being what it was included having both the vice chancellor and Alexandria here because she was head of the student government and the ranking cadet and hence was here with most of the staff.

"You said there were pirates running around in the colors of Amaris fusiliers."

"In the RimWard Periphery," He replied to her comment, shaking his head "Not in the Outworld Alliance... but the Rim World had hidden army facilities out that way, and beyond the border going east as it ere." Henry blew out a breath, eyes scanning the throng of adult mechwarriors, "If there are no objections I will be maintaining an elevated Combat Air Patrol in system." The question not really a question was directed at the civil governor of the planet who handled administration on Ian Davion's behalf, and also the local DMM commander who in a 'time of war', which was allthe time in the succession wars, had nominal military authority of the march militia troops. "It should give us warning if something happens at Zenith or Nadir," and also if someone jumped into the lagrangian points in orbit... but he didn't think that was likely...but any amount of time would give them warning to ready ground forces, any extra time was only a good thing.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dragoons 1.4
Henry expected the confrontation to come, so waiting for it was a problem... it was why when no one objected to his plans he moved deliberately forward with going to ComStar. That didn't make him oblivious to either the Blackwell or Dragoons following but he had to get things done... and obstinacy on ComStar's part was just going to be something to deal with... or at least that was what he had expected.

The truth was he had scarcely played the holographic recordings and battle rom footage from the deep periphery with the garish napoleonic symbols of the Rim Worlds Republic emblazoned on ASF and on the wide prow of the warship before the precentor became very very cooperative... the swooning and fainting from some of the other ComStar staff was... not something he missed but he'd been in too much of a hurry to pay it too much mind. The connection to Robinson and to transmit to New Avalon live took priority.

The set up for that gave him time to relay, that was to say answer the precentor's questions about what they knew had happened at Alpheratz and the rumors filtering in from the Outworlds Alliance...that there was at least one Rim World marked WarShip. That even if they were 'just' pirates they had one warship and supporting JumpShips and that there were strongly believed to be other raids in progress... and with the accompanying atrocities.

The question which in hindsight stood out, and to the best of Henry's knowledge been answered honestly in the negative, was if the attacking force had been specifically singling out ComStar. They hadn't, at least to his early reports. This was a generalized offensive, not a specifically targeted raid.

His report to Lord Aaron as Field Marshal of the Draconis March reiterated much of the same information. The capital of the Draconis March was closer to Terra than Sakhara but at the distances entailed that really didn't mean much. The two worlds, Sakhara and Robinson, were relatively close together... but any additional forewarning was something to be treasured. "I need to inform New Avalon," But it took longer to get ahold of Ian, and it was a greater distance, and the briefing to the suzerain of the Federated Suns was a more complex strategic implication. "I'll order transport of reinforcing armor per the schedule we worked out, but beyond that at this time I have nothing further to report."

"Of course, gods speed." Aaron Sandoval replied. The hologram attenuated... and the brief conversation ended there. The DMM leadership was informed. The Robinson Rangers would be mobilizing... but there were limits to what aid the duke of Robinson could otherwise promise. There was a lot he would have liked to have said to the head of House Sandoval... but nothing that couldn't be reported by carrier. The word was out. The Pinto was fast, well armed capable of running down dropships... and if it had been just being used as a commerce raider that would have been one thing... but it couldn't carry an invasion force by itself.

They'd have to wait and see how things played out. See what else happened. He was about to ask the robed attendant waiting in the chamber if the connection was back online, but the hologram of the live transmission expanded before he could do so. The Precentor New Avalon looked out of a breath, and he had Hanse, not Ian, in tow.

He took a breath, and composed himself before he spoke... hoping that audio transmission quality wouldn't be too bad. "Haakon's report based on other reports puts there between 7 and a dozen warships inRim World Colors, and perhaps as many as fifty JumpShips operating in the area of the outworlds alliance." There was speculation that there could have been some kind of failed jump or misjump event dropping a RimWorld fleet into the future... but that was just speculation. There was the possibility of it being some Rim World depot built into a planetoid or something... but that wouldn't explain the crews... and then there was the worst possible option that some Hidden Army preparations had included seeding colonies that were now mounting attacks into the Outworlds Alliance... but he wasn't here to speculate on the origins of the Pinto that had beenpart of the attack on Alpheratz... just to report that it had happened.

It was the Precentor New Avalon, not Hanse who showed surprise even if it was fleeting regarding the presence of the Wolf Dragoon Warriors present. Hanse though leapt at the opportunity even though neither warrior was in a position to offer much support ... and Henry had no idea where the Wolf Dragoons currently were. Hanse wasn't going to let the opportunity pass him by though... even if it was only a very brief entreatment over the live hpg broadcast... and then it was over and the warning was delivered... because as it was there was only ... were only limited reports and footage to go off of.

ComStar had not overly protested, which was something that Henry had been worried about. The problem was there was no reason for anyone to masquearde as the Rim World Republic if they had warships... it wouldn't have fit the behaviors or the mandates of any of the other succession states... so most likely this was what they were facing. The 3rd​ Succession war was no involving such things....which meant potential civilian casualties were apt to increase.

With those expensive interstellar phone calls completed though his work at the ComStar annex was completed... save that there was one other piece of knowledge. Alpheratz's precentor was not answering attempts to connect to the network. There was no response from Alpheratz's HPG station, and the Precentor New Avalon was looking worried... that however had nothing to do with Hanse's order to make for New Avalon as soon as possible, which he'd been planning to do anyway given the situation.

He paid the bill, watching as it drained out of the essence and shrugged it off. He had more important things to worry about than the money... now that that was done he still had to contend with the two Warriors sniffing after his heels. He was not personally concerned about his own security the exchange of his usual elemental protection for uniformed troopers was enough for that... it was more likely the questions that were likely to be asked. It was on that, that Clay intended to beat them to the point, "Warriors," He declared, "It is my invitation that you should join me on the way to New Avalon, though this is for the moment confined to to the periphery this may be the greatest challenge of the 3rd​Succession War." He weighed the next words carefully aware that he had there attention already, "Your presence will insure that the wolves have a voice in the debate of what the course against these outlaws who wear House Amaris's colors." With that he had their attention, as well as their interest.

That punctuated as it was about the time that they made their way to the vehicle that the expanded the called for expanded air defense patrols began making their presence known. The heavier F 77 serieswere technically lostech... and reminded him he was going to need to look closer at his options... but warships had been a distant concern, and one that he had largely been looking at in the prospects of a future clan invasion. He waited for the loud aerospace fusion droning passed over and nodded then towards the Blackwell represenatives, extending a similar invitation to come along to New Avalon with him.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dragoons 1.5
Henry's eyes squinted at the display... the very demonstration that he was tired. There was a mumbled grumbling about not having time for this. Whether or not he was also irritated about having to run interference between their Clan Wolf guests and Robinson's horse clan, well of that Alexandria assumed it was the case... but the two mechwarriors from Wolf's dragoons who remained close by and the absence of Robinson element supported her thesis.

Alexandria considered how prominent the men of the 19th​Striker Regiment who had passed out of their own time and into the present day would have been if instead of the Wolfs Dragoons it wasthe Eridani Light Horse who were here. For some two centuries the Eridani had left an empty seat for their betrayed sister regiment. Today first and foremost were troopers in the khaki battle dress of the Star League Defense Force without any of the Cluster and theirheavy autocannon emphasizing heavy tanks.

Of course that might be reading too far into the situation, drawing comparisons that didn't actually exist. It was no secret from Henry's side of things that Ian Davion, the ever affable First Prince, was quite fond of the old campaigner who commanded the storied mercenary RCT. She hardly expected the kind of aristocratic dueling tradition that seemed to be the concern with the rival clans in a meeting of the Battle Company, and the descendants of their sister regiments. Even so the conflict between strong personalities, and different structures was a perennial concern of command. The Academy was very much about networking, and while Clay was on the blunter side of the personality dichotomy there was no denying that he enjoyed a popular position among the student body, and enviable one where his lecturing was supported and accepted because of what he had done on Mallory's World, and at Halstead Station.

... and yet the Dragoons had always been a queer outfit. Rumors swirled around them, and their dialect, and speech, and attitudes towards society when they had first arrived had raised eyebrows amongpolite society... regardless of how tickled their behaviors migh thave entertained the First Prince.

Henry didn't have five regiments worth of pristine battlemechs, and the dragoons had demonstrated more than once the ability to replenish their forces. No doubt their home far away, their distant clansmen had substantial reserves by which to support the Dragoons. That they were far away meant Wolf, Jaime Wolf, had had to make deals with local corporate partners. It wouldn't have been absurd to look at the New Valencia based parts firm as a potential rival, even without whatever rivalries existed among the clans of Kerensky.

Henry straightened drawing the attention of the room, "New Avalon, and Robinson are informed of the situation," Which they already knew of course that had been the whole point of visiting the robed technocratic monks who serviced the HPG network and made interstellar telecommunications possible to the inner sphere, "The situation is opaque, the latest news from ComStar is that the HPG station at Alpheratz is not answering." Twelve jumps, she thought... the obvious answer was that the pirates had mounted a second attack. "As an act of good faith I will be offering Mountain Wolf BattleMechs an introduction to Ian, if we're lucky," He muttered the last three words more under his breath, "The pirates just destroyed the HPG station."

"or that they seized the planet."

"Yes." was the response to Coleridge's interjection.

No doubt Henry had already considered the worse possible scenario. The rim world ships had made a return, and invested the planet... or simply rained nuclear weapons from orbit on the defenseless periphery world. There was not however a direct threat against the academy.

At least not a publicized one... the school at large, well it hadn't become a rumor because it hadn't reached the body at large, but Clay had expressed that he considered a threat from House Amaris... who everyone believed extinct as viable a threat to his security as that of House Kurita... and that was of course what the Vice Chancellor to bring up.

Clay shrugged, "Is there an Amaris pretender, yes. Is he leading this collection of mad men, I don't know. Personally I doubt it...but that very well goes into the problem of the self declared Stefan Amaris the VII is hardly likely to be the only pretender." He blew out a breath but no one, not even the now squirming Mech Warriors from the Dragoons interrupted, despite the palpable feeling in the air "There have been Amaris pretenders before, there are remnants of the Rim world who turned to piracy and banditry and who sit on the fringes of the periphery and made nuisances of themselves particularly along the former republican worlds... but to the best of my knowledge none of those have demonstrated access to warships, which puts this threat far in excess of what I was expecting."

The map that appeared was was nothing terribly unusual. Effort had been put into making it of course, that much was self evident, but there were shadings to show the territorial extent of all powers...including the Rim World, the Taurian Concordat, the Magistracy of Canopus, and of course the worlds that the nations of the Inner Sphere had withdrawn from as the succession wars took their toll.

There were highlights though she didn't recognize. The world 'north' of Lyran space was only one of those, but it was the one that Henry selected to show them. "This is von Strang's world, allegedly ruled by descendants of the Rimworld general of the same name, there are a handful of other worlds where th e planetary authorities espouse a revanchist view in support of the Rim World.. but to the best of my knowledge they have nothing to do with this incursion. In the absolute worst case scenario, Rim World elements fled into the periphery or built on existing colonies far flung into the black to support the Hidden Army and are returning to attack the Outworld alliance as some kind of greater territorial expansion. In short we will be fighting a Rim World Republic that can build new warships while we have lost that capacity."

The Dragoons could no longer contain themselves, all but falling over themselves to talk of informing Colonel Wolf... and it wasn't hard for Alexandria to imagine what they really meant was yes to speak to their superior but likely to ask for support from their clansmen at home... just as she suspected that the Northwind clans of Highlanders would also rally to the potential chance of fighting House Amaris and any returned Rim World threat.

The two Warriors from the Wolf Dragoons were eager to tell Jaime Wolf, and to get into the fight, but the Countess of Kestrel could not have fathomed was the reaction of Clan Wolf... but that failure to predict accurately their reaction, was a facet of her own ignorance. She imagined the clans of Kerensky, for her only exposure was the barest passing in social circles of the Dragoons, and only slightly greater familiarity with those of Hells Horse of the RAC, as not terribly dissimilar to how her own family and other SLDF families had settled on Kestrel... and that perhaps they were more mercenary, and there were likely rivalries but the depth of their differences with the Inner Sphere was not something she could imagine. Alexandria Cunningham simply didn't have the frame of reference in the waning years of the 3rd​ Succession War to guess as to how strange the Clans of Kerensky were... and they were not by any means some deep periphery version of the Eridani Light Horse clinging to the hopes and traditions of the Star League and its ideas of humanity.

What would play out was that the Dragoons would finish their contract with House Marik... and as Alexandria had accurately intuited reach out to Clan Wolf... and thus the Clan Council... and by that point the 3rd Succession War as it was to be understood by history would be over... and Alexandria would no longer be a cadet. In the present day though, the two warriors, were were clearly going to accompany Clay, along with Blackwell's representatives back to New Avalon... and it was true that the Rim World threat that had emerged from the periphery was hardly making a bee line for Sakhara to fight here... there were other enemies after all.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon

Henry had paced most of the time he had been able to... which was to say in the privacy of his own suite and the reality of the JumpShip circuit meant he hadn't had much time to do that given that transfer from JumpShip to JumpShip with each ready to make the next jump in sequence meant they had been in a hurry. It didn't matter that the news wasn't yet public... people weren't stupid, nobles and merchants alike realized that something was afoot... the problem was there wasn't enough information, they didn't know enough.

They knew enough to cause a panic, not enough to meaningfully plan what to do... and it was infuriating. They were going to be stuck waiting for more information, interstellar distances the limitations of jump drives, and the hpg network all came together to make courier travel the most reliable, but slowest method he felt he could trust. It was why he was going in person to New Avalon... or rather why he had come so quickly to the capital.

The ordinary expense of such a rush was offset by the circuit belonging to him... and the scope of the potential emergency... but that just infuriatingly fed back into they didn't know enough... and the ride over with Yvonne Davion didn't help matters. She'd been waiting at the star port... apparently it would have been unseemly for Hanse to be there waiting which had been the original plan... in so far as plans had been drawn up.

Henry still wanted to pace, but the sitting room was no place to do it... especially not in a room full of Field Marshals, and lesser generals. Most were from the Crucis March, or the Military Intelligence Commands, there was a smattering from the Draconis March, but Aaron Sandoval was noticeable in his absence which made the Duke of New Syrtis's presence, continued presence on the capital, all the more noticeable. It was the circumstances of the meeting not the company, these were or at least most of them would have been the officers who would likely have been present for BattleMech, Armor, and Air talks. In fact, most of them could have been assembled for that very reason when the news had broken... but why they had been here wasn't as important.

Ian Davion was wearing an uncharacteristically somber, bordering on gaunt, expression. The First Prince took a breath, "What is the worst case scenario?" There was a sudden commotion, and he scowled, "Henry what is the worst that we could be looking at?"

The room went silent.

Henry Clay took a breath realizing the weight of the room had shifted, "The worst case? A portion of the Rim World Army has had two hundred odd years to build up after having fled the Inner Sphere after the defeat of Amaris," Give or take some time, "Have an industrial base that never backslid may have even continued to produce Hegemony level technology, never lost the ability to construct warships," He paused, "We know they have warships, we should expect them to use..."

Silence reasserted itself.

"What are the chances of the combine collaborating?"

"Realistically?" Well he had no way to make an informed...to make anything better than a wild ass guess, "But I'd say low... but that doesn't make us friends with them."

"No it most certainly doesn't," Ian agreed sharpishly with a nod, "I'm giving you nuclear command authorization if an attack is mounted against Sakhara, its the only option we feasibly have against warships." He declared in sweeping gesture, "Find me other options if you can, but its the only one I can off you at this time. To reflect that, I am brevetting you to the rank of Colonel in the Armed Forces of the Federates Suns with special dispensation." Ian stopped, "Sorry, continue with what you were saying before I asked about the Kuritans probably not throwing in with Amaris for a second go round."

"That's the problem, the feasible worst case scenario is that its an RWA," A rim world army, "with Star League era numbers, I don't think the evidence supports that, but its the worse case scenario. If they left the Inner Sphere or at the time of the collapse of the league with several million people we could be looking at a population base of a billion without having sustained a major war in two centuries...total forces is potentially measured in divisions, something along the lines of what the Rim World brought against the SLDF... and probably with the same equipment"

Which in contemporary terms would mean a great deal since on the fringe of the periphery even a few hundred million people on a planet was a large population, and there were worlds were even a few battlemechs were enough to give the local militia hell... it was why BattleMechs were favored when you only needed one good pilot to make a difference on a small battlefield.

The Combine had been going around kicking the OWA whenever the fancy had struck them for centuries really, but sending as had become Takashi Kurita's MO sending a company of BattleMechs to run around and cause havoc... 'raid'... and having to consider the possibility of a warship getting to orbit and simply bombarding the planet like it was the age of war.... the carnage of the war against Amaris had entailed all the horrors which would be unleashed in the first succession war against the other great houses... the free use of strategic level firepower against unprotected cities.

"I understand," Ian replied, "I also understand that in addition to the business people you brought along a couple of the Dragoons with your retinue?" It was a comment, for it wasn't really a question, that caused the generals to start to stir again ,"We need the dragoons more than ever I think watch the border with the Combine, keep House Kurita on its toes I'll need you along for that Henry." More stirring, "We've got a lot to do, a lot of work to be done for everyone, this is the greatest threat in generations." Ian declared to the room of assembled officers loud though not shouting but the temporary address was the only bone to which Ian paid the other men. "You had said previously there is an Amaris pretender yes?"

"Yes, but my best guess was he had fled to the rimward periphery.... but as I mentioned before leaving Sakhara," And as he had told the Dragoons, it was very possible that there were other pretenders, "Stefan Amaris the third was a nephew not a direct descendant of the Usurper, from what I understand one of the other pretenders that popped up on the Lyran frontier a few decades later was a direct descendant or claimed to be but..." But he hadn't expected this, he thought given the distances involved the news coming in from the Rimward periphery were far far from him, and thus too far to be his primary concern.

A part of him worried about the miscalculation, but there was nothing he could have seen as doing any different... he had kept eye on news of the Rimward periphery, but there was nothing to suggest it had anything to do with this. Nothing at all, "Is there something else? "

"The dragoons,"

Ian waved slightly, "Yes, now Yvonne has told me that they've taken up with House Marik after their civil war, but I want to speak with Colonel Wolf sooner rather than later. More so now than ever, but even without this we have the proof that Kurita collaborated with Amaris."

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon

Henry had given another waiting room to get comfortable in, which was relative given the high stress situation they found themselves ... and the lack of information coming in. It wasn't Ian who walked in, but Hanse, "Ah Henry, this is Brevet General Kerston, of the Eridani Light Horse."

Fuck. Not that he said that out loud, but it was hard not to let the sentiment creep into his body language. The heir to the Federated Suns introduced a man who was about the duchess of Victoria's age, and one wearing the uniform of an SLDF Regulars Officer. There had been a number of possibilities Henry had considered, and topics he had hoped to bring up with Ian... not the least of which was to argue for royal patronage directly of Blackwell, and given the situation Mountain Wolf to expand the number of companies producing equipment that would buoy the Federated Suns war fighting capability. Even with that support it would be expensive, but having Ian put money into the program would help him offset cost, even if it was in a roundabout way, of the AFFS bought aircraft at market value.

... but he hadn't considered, and in hindsight should have considered that as one of the premier 'independent contractors' for the Federated Suns and certainly one of the largest the ELH would have been involved in an all hands on deck type scenario. They had probably already been available just for concerns on the Davion-Kurita border.

If it had just been Hanse he could have dealt with that. At Bristol they had talked about the modifications to the Rifleman, and Hanse had mentioned that trade with the Lyrans was a key policy agenda in his brother's rule. The rifleman and kallon deal had the potential to be expanded on both sides of the border deepening relations with the Archon's realm.

... but it wasn't just Hanse.

Henry nodded cordially to the general, glad he had worn a dark pinstripe suit and not his academy uniform, "General."

Brevest General Kerston was an almost gaunt looking man in late middle age. He wasn't quite heavy set, but he was probably on the other side of the hump and starting to gain weight as he put on years and spent more time behind a desk than in the cockpit of his 'mech. For a minute , Henry was sure he wanted to use words along the lines of young man or the like, "House Kurita betrayed the 19th​at Talitha, didn't they?"

"Among dozens of other regiments whose movements and positions were leaked to Amaris." He replied, and really it was more than that, dozens of 'mech regiments had been shredded by the Rimworld knowing they were coming and having time to prepare... and luring them into traps that killed civilians. "Talitha was just one of those."

"But men survived?'

"Amity City was, near a castle support complex for the training facility. Stasis tubes, fall back positions, wait, wait for Kerensky that was the plan." He replied in a resigned voice, "Didn't work out that way."

The heir to the realm nodded somberly, joining the conversation. "It was a gross betrayal of the Star League, of humanity as a whole really." Hanse declared, then gave a heavy sigh, "I had hoped to make these introductions under different circumstances." There had been plans for a conference, current rumor had suggested trying to move it from New Avalon to Northwind in order to try and pull units mercenaries not serving in Federated Suns space in so that Davion authorities could publicize the recording... but then this had happened. It was state calculus of course, Hanse was adjusting his formulations for what was best for his brother's realm, and how the other states of the Inner Sphere would react, which was where the next question was aimed. "You're sure that House Kurita won't collaborate?"

"Its been two hundred years of these wars, and I'm sure the current ruling coordinator knows what his ancestor did, but the RimWorld isn't sitting on Terra doesn't have control of the HPG network, doesn't have the advantage of... doesn't have any of the advantages they enjoyed at the end of the Star League... so no I don't think Takashi will make common cause especially with the fact they have warships the Kuritans don't I don't think, if he's survived as many attempts on his life as Yvonne says that Takashi looking like he could be pushed around by a periphery strongman and one with the Amaris legacy that their wouldn't be repercussions in the combine."

"Thats a small comfort given that Amaris colors are flying from warships again."

Which was a reminder of how Ian had responded to that news, "We're going to need to produce heavier aircraft, just with the Pinto, its fast well armored." And he still didn't have an immediate answer to that. An Alamo had to be carried by a fifty ton fighter but it negatively impacted flight characteristics... and, "The stuka facilities here on New Avalon could be expanded but that will take at least eight months to a year to get an aircraft expansion meaningfully." It wasn't ideal, they would still have to ship those aircraft off world but, "The line produces aircraft as it is, just not enough for what we are going to need."

"Good," The topic shift gave him time to work out what to say to Kerston, and the General wasn't interrupting, "What else can we do?"

"I don't know, as soon as Haakon jumped in we started sending messages out," Thus New Avalon had been apprised of the mess basically the same day he had been shown the assembled proof, "We're told they," ComStar, "can't raise Alpheratz, maybe the HPG just broke down, maybe they bombarded the planet," They in this case the Rim World warship.

"DropShip expansion?"

"DropShips with heavy weapons, the Pinto is fast, the alternative option are large carrier oriented DropShips." But it felt like he was just repeating himself. That Hanse was fishing for some magic solution, that Henry wasn't sure even existed. "Its going to be expensive, but its not something that when this threat is over with doesn't have other, we could reorient to other responsibilities from a defense perspective."

"Its going to be expensive, but you know that already." He remarked, "I'll introduce you to Lycomb, but I have to ask will this interfere with ground forces?"

"No. The factories are separate, we're prepared to ship out technical schematics, standardized weapons are based around being able to subcontract work to parts suppliers. In weapon terms PPCs are the bottleneck big ticket item," To the point there had been internal papers looking at whether or not they should refocus on Large Lasers, "But if we can expand supply sources and production both inside o f the Federated Suns with Blackwell, and push Lyran firms to expand production that should meet demands. There are existing bottleneck concerns for ammunition production," Something he had discussed with Lord Aaron regarding the variety of auto cannons in service with the DMM, "and the carrying capacity for keeping units supplied... but to the question of interfering with ground forces expansion with tanks and BattleMechs no."

There was another nod, "Good," He glanced over to Kerston,"We want you ready for next years Highland Faire at Northwind, full product line up, my understanding what I've argued to Ian about is that industrial build up takes time. You have just under a year, by Christmas a full line up of ... budget," Hanse seemed a little reluctant to use that word, "And the pricier options as well for sale to not just mercenaries but to demonstrate to the AFFS. We won't be waiting until next year, I don't think its possible to wait that long but we will be disclosing matters relating to House Kurita's efforts sometime this year... we want to inform the Archon," So the Lyran Commonwealth, "privately first we have the ambassador to the Commonwealth prepared for that," Which wouldturn out to be Justin's father, who had previously served as the ambassador to the Capellan Confederation. "Ian wanted to go in person, but we've talked him away from that... but there is as you said a lot that needs to be done. General Kerston, thank you for your patience."

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notes: The plan tnetatively for next week is for Wednesday to post in the BT scraps thread I'm not positive that Rabid Fox will update nextweek right now, and Aurigan is currently on hold again. Ghost will be updated sunday that won't change, we're moving into and throughAquagea's recap and should be back in the magistracy of canopus by the new year.